Tag Archives: editor

This blog is going to be about two things: writing and editing. I’m both a writer and an editor, though most of my day-to-day work involves the editing side of words. But I think people can always benefit from hearing tips from both sides.

My first comment, though, is for writers – about editors. And the question is: why does anyone need an editor to begin with?

Every writer who’s been at it for any length of time knows one thing: we love our words. And we are really reluctant to change them once we’ve got them down. As far as we’re concerned, they’re perfect.

But experienced writers also know another thing: let our work sit for a few weeks and come back to it, and we suddenly discover a million flaws, and might even cringe to think that someone might have read this drivel if we hadn’t kept it under wraps.

What happened in the interim? We achieved some distance from the work, and were able to look at it more objectively. And once we did that, we were capable of seeing what parts still needed work, and what parts really were pearls of perfection all those weeks ago.

If you’re writing just for your own entertainment, or you have the luxury of waiting weeks or months between writing something and then trying to get it published or made public, you might be able to do without an editor.

But if you want to shorten that time and get an objective assessment – you need an editor. In fact, if you want an assessment from someone who is not just objective but is trained to make writing flow and read clearly – you definitely need an editor.

Because none of us ever quite gets over being in love with our own words. So we’re always limited in just how objective we an be. If your goal is to write for other people in some capacity – you need an editor.